NASA Discovers New Ring Around Saturn

[ZeroMachine]

And this relates to gaming how?

You've been here that long and you've never seen the non-gaming news articles they put out? Wow...

This is pretty interesting, though I'm sure all of them are pretty embarassed about missing this thing. It's like sitting in a room and then twenty minutes later realizing there's a literal elephant in the room.

 

[Ph33nix]

nasa fail? or maybe humanity fail? how did we miss something that big that close? i mean damn we found pluto how did we miss something hundreds of times bigger several times closer?

 

[mikecoulter]

That fact has changed my entire life.

 

[RomanLegacy]

This is a sign that we are supposed to destroy Saturn. Who knows what else that lying scumbag is hiding from us? I'm not going to wait till it gets the upper hand and invades.

 

[Valiance]

This is pretty sweet. Maybe we missed it because of how it looks before we had the technology we have today - might be huge, but less visible (less dense, less pretty, whatever...)

But either way, we found it now. Now we have to go to it.

 

[AceDiamond]

A new ring?

They are counting them?

That is what they are blowing money on now?

Cut their funding already.

I'm sure you thought you sounded like the smartest man in the room when you said this buuuuuut...

 

[Eldarion]

A new ring?

They are counting them?

That is what they are blowing money on now?

Cut their funding already.

I'm sure you thought you sounded like the smartest man in the room when you said this buuuuuut...

Unlike most of the internet, I am well aware that not everthing I say is profound.

But still, NASA gets alot of money that could be better spent on education an stuff.

Who the fuck cares about Saturn when our education system is to fucked to teach anyone well enough to be an astronaut?

 

[Strategia]

Hmm, interesting. The article claims that the ring probably consists of ice crystals shed by Phoebe. If so, that implies some interesting possibilities. Even if the crystals are indeed microscopic or nearly so, there's still a huge amount of ice in that ring, meaning that Phoebe was probably at least a fair bit larger in the past. Add to that its eccentric orbit, and that points to Phoebe being most probably a very big comet snatched up by Saturn's gravwell, or maybe even a small ice planet(oid) from the early days of the solar system. Fascinating stuff.

Oh, and to all of you saying "big deal, why are we paying for this crap": Yeah, let's stop funding the advancement of knowledge. Let's disassemble all those telescopes and turn them into howitzers, then we can do something REALLY worthwhile. Who cares about science anyway? Progress is overrated! Of course you know what the world needs, why listen to scientists! What have they ever done for us? Yeah, there's some minor things. Stuff like fire, ships, medicine, airplanes, the Internet. Who needs all that stuff? The world would be a MUCH better place without scientists just being allowed to do research.

And those of you saying "they're stupid for not finding this before": I'd like to see you try, (expletive deleted).

(Jesus christ, I'm at a loss for words that won't get me suspended. This stuff really gets under my skin.)

 

[AceDiamond]

A new ring?

They are counting them?

That is what they are blowing money on now?

Cut their funding already.

I'm sure you thought you sounded like the smartest man in the room when you said this buuuuuut...

Unlike most of the internet, I am well aware that not everthing I say is profound.

But still, NASA gets alot of money that could be better spent on education an stuff.

Who the fuck cares about Saturn when our education system is to fucked to teach anyone well enough to be an astronaut?

Well I guess you're right about the education system being fucked if you can't even be arsed to spell, "everything", "and", and "too" correctly. Also, "a lot" is two words.

It's not a question of "who gives a fuck about Saturn", it's a question of simply finding out what the telescope that discovered this was designed for. In this case the Spitzer Space Telescope was designed to take IR readings of outer space in order to be able to find out more about distant objects than was ever possible. In the process Spitzer has discovered not only possibly the youngest star yet recorded, but also (and I think this part is very important if we are to ever explore new worlds) it successfully mapped an extrasolar planet, essentially gathering data we'd never been able to get before on other planets outside our Solar System.

The point to all this? How else are we to understand how the universe works if we do not investigate it? Then again what do I know, I'm a product of the "fucked American education system" and yet I somehow still had enough foresight to spend 10 seconds typing in "Spitzer Space Telescope" into Wikipedia and 5 minutes reading up on it.

 

[Eldarion]

A new ring?

They are counting them?

That is what they are blowing money on now?

Cut their funding already.

I'm sure you thought you sounded like the smartest man in the room when you said this buuuuuut...

Unlike most of the internet, I am well aware that not everthing I say is profound.

But still, NASA gets alot of money that could be better spent on education an stuff.

Who the fuck cares about Saturn when our education system is to fucked to teach anyone well enough to be an astronaut?

Well I guess you're right about the education system being fucked if you can't even be arsed to spell, "everything", "and", and "too" correctly. Also, "a lot" is two words.

Dude, on the internet no one cares much about spelling.

Also, exploring new worlds is fine and all, but we have much more pressing issues to deal with right here at home before I'll ever consider NASA and most of its new protects to be anything more than a waste of money.

Outer space can wait until our economy and education is fixed.

 

[AceDiamond]

Dude, on the internet no one cares much about spelling.

Also, exploring new worlds is fine and all, but we have much more pressing issues to deal with right here at home before I'll ever consider NASA and most of its new protects to be anything more than a waste of money.

Outer space can wait until our economy and education is fixed.

I'm not your dude, brah.

And for those saying "we have bigger problems at home" consider this. JFK wanted a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. You know what else was happening during the 1960s? Vietnam. The Cuban Missile Crisis. China's "Great Leap Forward". The Six Day War. The Cuban Missile Crisis is especially important because, if not for cooler heads prevailing, mankind could have wiped itself out in a nuclear war.

My point being that we exist in a time where the threat of nuclear annihilation and full-on world war is a lot less imminent than it was in the 1960s. I'm not saying that means we have no problems at all here, far from it, but to say that we should completely abandon our pursuit of the stars in the belief that it will somehow fix things is pure folly. Look at the International Space Station. It represents the fact that, despite everything, nations of the world can work together. And that is possibly the most important thing we can gain through space exploration. I know it's idealistic of me to say that but I'd rather have us try to move forward as a species and fail then to have never tried at all.

Also NASA's budget is pretty damn tiny these days so if anything they need more money. Apparently just $3 billion more a year will allow us to work towards renewed lunar operations. If not, at our current rate it'll be 2050 before we can do that.

 

[Eldarion]

Dude, on the internet no one cares much about spelling.

Also, exploring new worlds is fine and all, but we have much more pressing issues to deal with right here at home before I'll ever consider NASA and most of its new protects to be anything more than a waste of money.

Outer space can wait until our economy and education is fixed.

I'm not your dude, brah.

And for those saying "we have bigger problems at home" consider this. JFK wanted a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. You know what else was happening during the 1960s? Vietnam. The Cuban Missile Crisis. China's "Great Leap Forward". The Six Day War. The Cuban Missile Crisis is especially important because, if not for cooler heads prevailing, mankind could have wiped itself out in a nuclear war.

My point being that we exist in a time where the threat of nuclear annihilation and full-on world war is a lot less imminent than it was in the 1960s. I'm not saying that means we have no problems at all here, far from it, but to say that we should completely abandon our pursuit of the stars in the belief that it will somehow fix things is pure folly. Look at the International Space Station. It represents the fact that, despite everything, nations of the world can work together. And that is possibly the most important thing we can gain through space exploration. I know it's idealistic of me to say that but I'd rather have us try to move forward as a species and fail then to have never tried at all.

Abandoning it and thinking that will help is folly?

Just cut thier funding for awhile thats all, there are more practical things that can be done with the millions of dollars being spent on stupid crap like this.

 

[AceDiamond]

Just cut thier funding for awhile thats all, there are more practical things that can be done with the millions of dollars being spent on stupid crap like this.

You're missing the point, which doesn't surprise me. I didn't say abandon the Earth. I said it's perfectly reasonable in this day and age to look to the stars while also dealing with our problems at home. Also it's really hard to cut funding to an agency that is already underfunded.

 

[lasherman]

Hmm... I guess if there were a competition between all the planets then Saturn would... run rings around the opposition. ^_^

Ugh... It's impossible to talk about space without horrible puns! Don't make me reach through my computer and 'ring' your neck! (It may have been a stretch but it still works)

 

[Necrofudge]

Amazingness! another ring! This tops everything everywhere forever! Screw a new president! This is da shitz

 

[Eldarion]

Just cut thier funding for awhile thats all, there are more practical things that can be done with the millions of dollars being spent on stupid crap like this.

You're missing the point, which doesn't surprise me. I didn't say abandon the Earth. I said it's perfectly reasonable in this day and age to look to the stars while also dealing with our problems at home. Also it's really hard to cut funding to an agency that is already underfunded.

More practical to just put them on hold completely for awhile. Every dollar spent discovering crap we don't care about on Saturn is time and money better spent doing things that help us in a real way.

 

[Godavari]

OMG NO WAI NO WAI NO WAI!!!!!

I just love Saturn. If all the planets went to a party, she'd be the overdressed glamor girl.
And don't worry about Uranus, he's the mentally disabled one of the bunch, so he doesn't care.

 

[Flos]

Just cut thier funding for awhile thats all, there are more practical things that can be done with the millions of dollars being spent on stupid crap like this.

You're missing the point, which doesn't surprise me. I didn't say abandon the Earth. I said it's perfectly reasonable in this day and age to look to the stars while also dealing with our problems at home. Also it's really hard to cut funding to an agency that is already underfunded.

More practical to just put them on hold completely for awhile. Every dollar spent discovering crap we don't care about on Saturn is time and money better spent doing things that help us in a real way.

I care about space, so your argument is void.

Unless I ain't part of this 'we' that gets to decide everything.

 

[Eldarion]

Just cut thier funding for awhile thats all, there are more practical things that can be done with the millions of dollars being spent on stupid crap like this.

You're missing the point, which doesn't surprise me. I didn't say abandon the Earth. I said it's perfectly reasonable in this day and age to look to the stars while also dealing with our problems at home. Also it's really hard to cut funding to an agency that is already underfunded.

More practical to just put them on hold completely for awhile. Every dollar spent discovering crap we don't care about on Saturn is time and money better spent doing things that help us in a real way.

I care about space, so your argument is void.

Unless I ain't part of this 'we' that gets to decide everything.

This is an internet forum. Nothing is being decided. The "we" is a hypothetical, duh.

You care about space, I care more about helping out humans that are in need on earth.

Starving people don't give 2 shits about space rings.

 

[SilentHunter7]

Just cut thier funding for awhile thats all, there are more practical things that can be done with the millions of dollars being spent on stupid crap like this.

You're missing the point, which doesn't surprise me. I didn't say abandon the Earth. I said it's perfectly reasonable in this day and age to look to the stars while also dealing with our problems at home. Also it's really hard to cut funding to an agency that is already underfunded.

More practical to just put them on hold completely for awhile. Every dollar spent discovering crap we don't care about on Saturn is time and money better spent doing things that help us in a real way.

I care about space, so your argument is void.

Unless I ain't part of this 'we' that gets to decide everything.

This is an internet forum. Nothing is being decided. The "we" is a hypothetical, duh.

You care about space, I care more about helping out humans that are in need on earth.

Starving people don't give 2 shits about space rings.

I don't think you realize just how little funding NASA really gets.

They're currently operating on a 17 billion dollar budget.

To put that in perspective;
We spend 682 billion on Medicare/Medicaid.
We spend 612 billion on Social Security.
We spend 249 billion just paying off the interest on our loans.

You could completely disband NASA, and it would be like throwing a bucket of water into Lake Superior.